BRAY FOR PRO FX AT WILLOWBANK IN APRIL
1 April 2010
Local drag racing stalwart Ben Bray will be on track at the ENZED Australian Top Fuel Championships come April 17 and 18 at Willowbank Raceway, however he won’t be piloting his usual Top Doorslammer machine.
Instead, Bray – who is currently fourth in the national championship points for Top Doorslammer - will be steering the Gas Motorsports ProFX Scion in the category that is fast emerging as a crowd-pleaser with its state-of-the-art machines running in the six second brackets at 200 miles per hour (approx 360kmh).
The three time national champion and the son of drag racing legend Victor Bray, of Kallangur, will be running the Scion at Willowbank Raceway for both April’s event and the season-ending Castrol EDGE Winternationals as well as May’s Sydney Nitro Champs.
“The ProFX Scion is basically a Haltech Motorsport car fully prepped by Gas Motorsport,” said Bray.
“Haltech sponsor me and all of my other turbo cars that I play with and they had just put the new Haltech 2000 in the car and wanted someone to drive, so I jumped at the chance, and will be racing alongside Gas Motorsport’s Joe Signorelli.
“I’ve always wanted to drive one but was waiting for the day to that I would own one to do so, it is not often you get to drive one so I jumped at the opportunity – brand new cars like this are worth 200 thousand, while second hand they are around 150,000, so it’s a pretty big opportunity.”
Bray said he was looking forward to getting in amongst the Pro FX action at Willowbank over April 17 and 18 after his initial run in the category was rained out in February at Sydney Dragway.
“I had my first run in Sydney, we ran at 200 miles per hour with an early shut off, and it was extremely smooth, as opposed to the doorslammer where you feel like you get kicked in the butt everytime you drop the clutch!” said Bray.
“The biggest thing was the lack of downforce, a bit like a Pro Stock car. It’s a lot smoother in the take off, and doesn’t feel as though it is accelerating as hard as in the Doorslammer but it certainly is, and I am really looking forward to having more of a go of it in April at the ENZED Top Fuel Champs at Willowbank.
“We ran a 6.7 second pass in Sydney, so at Willowbank I would like to aim for the 6.50s as that is where the good guys are and I would like to run up there with the best."
So does this mean that Benny Bray will be seen full-time in ProFX in the future?
“It is all a little bit of fun at the moment, I already run the Sports Compact Datsun and I am building another Sports Compact,” said Bray.
“This is really like anything else really, if it has got four wheels and a motor I’ll steer it!”
Bray will be one of over 260 racers lining up at the Ipswich quarter mile for the ENZED Top Fuel Championships, with seven Top Fuelers, 17 Pro Stockers, 9 Pro Stock Bikes, seven Pro FX and over 200 sportsman racers all set to take part in the two-day event.
The weekend’s action will kick off with qualifying on Saturday April 17 from 12noon, with the feature categories first taking to the track from 5pm. Race Day Sunday kicks off at 9am, with feature racing from 11am and all finals from 4.00pm.
For more information and schedules, to purchase tickets or view the entry list, please visit www.willowbankraceway.com.au